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Minimum wage still to be reviewed --- McLeod News --- Page A6
news
A3
Friday, February 6, 2015 www.guardian.co.tt Guardian
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*******
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3.2282
for 05TH FERBUARY, 2015
RACHAEL ESPINET
"My daughter left home with a pretty
face and her face is swell up now with
burns all over."
This was the agonising reality Michelle
Hernandez experienced as she watched her
28-year-old daughter, Sherlene, lying in
the Accident and Emergency Ward of the
Port-of-Spain General Hospital with burns
on her face yesterday.
Sherlene was in the kitchen at the El
Pecos restaurant at Royal Palm Plaza, Mar-
aval, when an explosion rocked the bottom
floor of the building. She was one of 11
people who were injured in the blast.
"My daughter face swell up. They had
to cut off her clothes. Skin is falling off
the side of her face," Hernandez bawled
as she waited outside the hospital for fur-
ther information about her daughter.
Hernandez said her daughter is a mother
of three and had worked with El Pecos for
12 years.
Father of two, Noel Buccoo, an employee
of El Pecos for eight years, was working
in the kitchen when the gas tank exploded.
He received burns to his head and was
thrown through a glass door during the
explosion.
His sister-in-law Germillia Marryshow
said Buccoo was luckily not to be in as
serious a condition as other people she
saw in the emergency ward.
"There are people in worse condition in
there. There was this woman whose face
was totally burned away from the side of
her face.
"Another woman, her skin was dropping
off of her body. Her skin was falling off
her hands. It was looking real bad. There
were people who did not get major injuries
and there were others who got burned all
over their hands and face and back," she
added.
The woman said although she was not
involved in the accident, she said from the
looks of the injured people no amount of
money could compensate for their wounds.
"It was not nice just seeing this. Knowing
that your whole face just burned away. No
money could compensate your face," she
said.
Marryshow said her brother-in-law told
her that he would not go back to work at
El Pecos after this incident.
Amile Joseph, 24, was working next door
to El Pecos in Hurry Curry when the explo-
sion occurred. She initially thought it was
a bomb but soon realised it was an explo-
sion.
"AssoonasIgotuptogoandserve
somebody, all I saw was a set of glass
explode. I was feeling real scared.
"I did not know what it was. I just ran
outside. I thought it was a bomb or some
kind of thing. I was so scared. When we
went outside we saw people coming out
from El Pecos badly injured," Joseph said.
Although Joseph said she was relatively
uninjured, one of her co-workers, who she
identified as Laverne, hurt her leg and she
was at the hospital for treatment. Joseph
said even after the incident she was still
"out of sorts" and scared.
Michelle Hernandez, mother of El Pecos
employee Sherlene Hernandez, who
suffered burns following an explosion at
the Royal Palm Plaza, Maraval, yesterday,
cries as she tries to contact relatives on her
cellphone at the Port-of-Spain General
Hospital yesterday.
PHOTO: MICHEAL BRUCE
GETTING IT RIGHT
In a story on Page A5 yesterday, it was
reported that advertising agency boss Ernie Ross
had changed his mind and had confirmed that he
did meet with former National Security Minister
Gary Griffith and his wife, Nicole, at his St Clair
office last week Thursday.
Mr Ross has been consistent in saying that a
meeting of Communication Minister Vasant
Bharath, the Griffiths and himself never took
place but that he met with the Griffiths on
January 29.
The miscommunication is regretted.
After restaurant blast in Maraval...
Victims in pain
Victims' relatives
get counselling
CEO of the North West Regional Health
Authority (NWRHA), Judith Balliram, said yes-
terday that four people were severely injured in
the explosion and they remained warded up to
last night.
The other seven were also under observation
in the A&E Ward.
One person is in critical condition, and had
approximately 25 per cent of body burns. Balliram
said all 11 people were stabilised. Those people
who had facial burns will have to be closely
monitored to ensure their airways remain clear,
she said.
She said the PoSGH was fully equipped with
the necessary resources to handle the patients
who were taken their yesterday.
"We are quite capable with all of our resources
to handle all patients that came in, which we
have done.
"All of our equipment and all of our staff were
equipped to deal with this situation. We have
dealt with this very successfully," she added.
She said relatives of the victims were also
counselled by the therapists in the hospital.
Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan commended
those on the scene and the actions of those in
the hospital for taking care of the patients.
"I went to the scene and then came here.
They really and truly did well for a disaster,
which is really good," Khan said.
Communication Minister Vasant Bharath, in
a release yesterday, said: "The victims will receive
the best emergency care and Government will
remain on top of developments to ensure that
any further assistance that is required can be
immediately forthcoming."
Another woman, her skin was
dropping off of her body. Her
skin was falling off her hands. It
was looking real bad.